Dave's Transformers - Comics: Movie Adaptations

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Transformers the Animated Movie: Bob Budiansky and Don Figueroa take a stab at adapting the 1986 movie in four issues. The original comic adaptation was in 3 issues, so that's some improvement.

Transformers the Animated Movie #1 (of 4): IDW - Oooh, glossy logo on matte cover. Anyway, I've said many times that I think an adaptation of TV or movie to comics really needs to use a full issue for every 8-10 minutes, and almost no adaptation even comes close. This one is better than the Marvel adaptation in that it spends 4 issues instead of 3 (of which I only own #2, so I can't do a direct comparison yet), but still way too compressed. Budiansky manages to keep most of the dialogue (although he left out "Such heroic nonsense!") and Figueroa gamely tries to evoke lengthy action sequences in a couple of panels here and there, but if you'd never seen the movie, this comic would seem disjointed and rushed. Some of the dialogue bits make less sense or carry less impact or even change their meaning because we don't get to see the actions that go with them. There's also one misdirected word balloon, but it's really a line anyone in the room could have said without it being confusing. Well, anyone but Prime. As a trivia aside, Ralph "not the Karate Kid" Macchio wrote Marvel's adaptation, so this is not Budiansky directly recycling his own work. :) Mildly recommended. $3.99 [Later note: okay, there's more than one mispointed word bubble, the letterer seems to hate Perceptor.]
Transformers the Animated Movie #2 (of 4): IDW - From Prime's death to Hot Rod landing in the drink on Quintessa. Fewer weird transition issues than #1, although I'm slightly sad that the infamous "Spike curses" bit got left out. I didn't notice any bad balloon placement, but there was at least one footnote with no asterisked "source" panel, so it's still being edited by, well not necessarily monkeys, but inattentive people. Looks nice, though. Recommended. $3.99
Transformers the Animated Movie #3 (of 4): IDW - Goes from the underwater sequence on Quintesson to the revival of Ultra Magnus on Junk. 22 pages of story (with page numbers), 10 pages of house ads. The compression effects aren't so bad this time around, although there's a LOT of action sequences in this part of the movie, and those tend to be easier to shorten in the name of space. Recommended. $3.99
Transformers the Animated Movie #4 (of 4): IDW - While I didn't fine-tooth-comb it for the kinds of errors that have plagued previous issues, this one definitely had better pacing than those, and did a pretty good job of conveying the climax. Granted, it manages this in part by skipping a LOT of the time spent monkeying around in Unicron's guts. I do have a bit of a quibble with the art, though...Figueroa does such a good job capturing the cel feel of the a movie that the lettering and FX stand out like sore thumbs, like cel fumetti or something. Recommended. $3.99

Transformers Sector 7 - A prequel series that chronicles the history fo Sector 7 prior to the start of the first movie. Each issue covers a different piece of the timeline over the course of more than a century.

Transformers Sector 7 #1 (of 5): IDW - IDW's latest movieverse comic, written by John Barber and drawn by Joe Suitor...neither of whom I can recall seeing before. The story focuses on the original 7 of Sector 7, Victorian adventurers who recovered Megatron so that he could be eventually moved south and Hoover Dam built over him. Suitor's art is almost entirely grays and browns, and while it evokes the Victorian age reasonably well, it's too murky in places and seems to contradict the end notes a couple of times. (i.e. Barber mentions the faction symbol on one of the characters...who does not seem to have a visible faction symbol in any panel where he appears. That same character appears to have been the U.S.S. Maine in the story, but Barber's endnotes claim the character blew up the Maine accidentally.) The end notes combine both historical stuff (for those who don't know what the Maine is and why it's important) and continuity stuff (like "this character is the unnamed one in the background of issue 1 of the prequel comic" sort of things). It's a pity Barber clearly put so much work into making the story hang together, only to have Suitor mess it up. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Way Too Many Gwangi" Award to Transformers Sector 7 #1 (of 5)
Transformers Sector 7 #2 (of 5): IDW - Skip ahead to 1913, about a decade before the term "robot" came to be applied to mechanical men. This is an important point. :) It's another short snapshot (not exactly a Day In The Life, but close), of the day the AllSpark was first excavated and its powers revealed. A failing marriage is actually the main plot of the issue, wrapped around the inevitable fight scene. It's like Barber can't quite decide what comic to write, though, as neither the relationship story nor the cosmic plot get quite enough time to blossom. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Hoover? I 'Ardly KNOW 'Er!" Award to Transformers Sector 7 #2 (of 5)
Transformers Sector 7 #3 (of 5): IDW - The generational tale picks up 20 years later, as the AllSpark-awakened car that got away last issue hooks up with Bonnie & Clyde. After a little reformatting, it looks a lot like the recent Hubcap toy, but is never named and is not the same as the character described in the toy's bio note. Its arms are based on Ransack's machine gun arm, though. The writing isn't any more historically accurate than last issue, but this time Barber has the excuse that he's really homaging the Bonnie & Clyde movie rather than trying to do significant historical research here. Chee's art is okay, although I prefer his work on Lovecraftian stuff over this. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "I Suppose We Could Call This Transformer 'Getaway'" Award to Transformers Sector 7 #3 (of 5)
Transformers Sector 7 #4 (of 5): IDW - Turns out that what Midtown had listed last week was *just* the retailer incentive cover, so this is actually on time. Set in WWII, the story advances to the next generation of the Simmons family in a sort of Sgt. Rock tale but with a much higher mortality rate for the good guys (and replace War Wheel with reverse-engineered Cybertronian tech). It does in many ways feel like a deliberate attempt to take those old fantastic WWII stories and make them more "realistic," by which I mean more deadly and horrific. Lou Kang goes with pretty standard comic art, no stylistic filips to make it hard to follow (or outright messes like Jae Lee's WWII TFs). Recommended. $3.99
- "Jetfeuer Ist Veraergert, Ja?" Award to Transformers Sector 7 #4 (of 5)
Transformers Sector 7 #5 (of 5): IDW - Heh, the nice thing about the end notes in this series is that the writer does admit to it when he does things like lift a sequence from John Carpenter's "The Thing" for this issue. :) This story takes place in 1954, and Seymour Simmons from the movies is only present in embryonic form, so they've left themselves plenty of room to fill in the backstory in the 1960s once Dark of the Moon comes out and lays down a few more tracks of canon. The story tries to be a claustrophobic horror story with mysterious murders in a sealed Arctic base (hence the Thing refs), but while Davis-Hunt's art style is appropriate to action stories it's too bright and clear for horror. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Clearly Nolan Has No Tactile Nerve Endings In His Forehead" Award to Transformers Sector 7 #5 (of 5)

Transformers Official Movie Prequel - A four issue miniseries from IDW telling a story set before the 2007 live action Transformers movie. Written by Chris Ryall and Simon Furman, art by Don Figueroa.

Transformers Official Movie Prequel #1 (of 4): IDW - I got the wraparound cover B. Don Figueroa almost makes the movie designs work, but the drab sameness of them all (yes, they differ in a lot of little details, but it all runs together) combiner with an obvious intent to NOT name the viewpoint character makes it annoyingly hard to follow. Co-written by Ryall and Furman, I'm guessing that it was Ryall who created the location "Simfur". :) Anyway, both the art and writing are oppressively dark, murky and obfuscated, and I really hope the movie doesn't continue with that tone throughout. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Primus Is A Cenobite?" Award to Transformers Official Movie Prequel #1 (of 4)
Transformers Official Movie Prequel #2 (of 4): IDW - I got cover A. Mostly focuses on Megatron's arrival on Earth and subsequent fate, but has some nice Victorian-era stuff as well. Still no idea who the protagonist of #1 is, unless he was Optimus Prime in disguise. The action focuses mainly on vehicle modes and humans, so the ugly movie designs aren't as much of a factor, and Figueroa's art generally looks better than in #1. Recommended. $3.99
- "Fancy Meeting You Here, Skyfire" Award to Transformers Official Movie Prequel #2 (of 4)
Transformers Official Movie Prequel #3 (of 4): IDW - Well, in case I hadn't read the prequel novel to find out, the "A" cover of this one makes it pretty clear that the unnamed Autobot in #1 was, indeed, Bumblebee. A somewhat scattered issue that almost but not definitely contradicts the prequel novel (and definitely contradicts the spirit of it). I do wonder how they'll explain the gap between the events in 2003 and the movie in 2007, though. Unless the movie is supposed to be set in 2003? Ah well. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Welcome To Tranquility" Award to Transformers Official Movie Prequel #3 (of 4)
Transformers Official Movie Prequel #4 (of 4): IDW - Well, as a prequel it certainly can't have a significant resolution, but...eh. It was okay. Starscream seems to have gotten the Standard Furman Grimlock Personality, plus vocalisms, but with some of the classic Starscream snark. Good Figueroa art, especially since he gets to work with mainly humans and vehicles rather than vague piles of scrap. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Mike Chary As A Transformer" Award to Transformers Official Movie Prequel #4 (of 4)
Target Exclusive Prequel: Link is to a review of the whole DVD package, but includes a few paragraphs about the comic, and how it doesn't quite fit with Prequel #4 above. Nor, however, does Prequel #4 really work with the movie either. Oops.

Transformers Official Movie Adaptation: A four issue series by Oprisko and Milne. Released weekly in June 2007, although the TPB collecting all four hit bookstores the first week of June, thus cutting comic shops off at the knees. Oops.

Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #1 (of 4): IDW - Gasp! No variant covers...well, other than retailer incentives. I guess the fact that this is a weekly title made them decide to play it closer to the chest on the variants this time. Plus, the regular cover is wraparound. Fair warning going in, I've already read the official novel, the junior novelization and several kiddiebook adaptations by this point, so I may unconsciously fill in any gaps in the storytelling. On the other hand, I may unfairly compare it to those other adaptations as well. Keep in mind my rule of thumb, a good comic adaptation really needs one 22-page issue for every 10-15 minutes of screen time, which puts this one a few issues shy of the mark, even with 26 pages per issue. The compression shows, an entire plot thread is essentially dropped, and most scenes are rushed. It's not horrible, but it really could've used a few more issues. Also has Blackout and Frenzy mini-posters, and an interview with one of the producers. Milne does a decent job of retaining the detail of the movie designs without the detail making the art impossible to follow. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Needs More Maggie" Award to Transformers the Official Movie Adaptation #1 (of 4)
Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #2 (of 4): IDW - You know, I've seen these scenes enough times in other adaptations that any new presentation has to be really good to impress me. And this ain't. Too compressed, and while Milne generally manages to make sense of the storytelling with his art, some panels simply look bad. Has another pull out poster, a Barricade pinup, pictures of Deluxe Brawl and an interview with the writer of the comic. Very mildly recommended. $3.99
- "HUGZ!" Award to Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #2 (of 4
Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #3 (of 4): IDW - Most of this issue's events take place at night, with associated dark and murky colors on way too many pages. The cover art looks rushed, and the story inside is mediocre in terms of adapting the full story. Very mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Okay, Maggie's IN It, If Barely" Award to Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #3 (of 4)
Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #4 (of 4): IDW - This opens with a background element that always annoys me, the statement that all advanced real world tech is reverse-engineered from some alien artifact. An artifact in the hands of only one government. As if all new tech of the past century has come solely from America. Pfeh. If they had some stuff more advanced than real life tech (as used in the Ghosts of Yesterday prequel novel), that'd work. But while it worked as a laugh in Men In Black, it's just dumb in a story trying to be taken seriously. That aside, this is another muddled mess with insufficient pagecount to really adapt the story, and it jumps from scene to scene in such a way that if I hadn't already read the novel, I'd have no idea what was going on half the time. Pass on this adaptation and just watch the movie or read the novel. Neutral. $3.99
- "Speed Dial's Psycho Ex" Award to Transformers Official Movie Adaptation #4 (of 4)

Transformers: Saga of the AllSpark: Simon Furman and various artists did movie-continuity stories for a magazine in the UK, and IDW got the right to reprint them. As a result of their origins, the page dimensions are a bit weird.

Transformers Saga of the AllSpark #1: IDW - Furman writes, Senior and Roche draw (two stories), setting is the 2007 movie continuity. Between Senior's art and the odd choice of page dimensions (large bottom margins as a result) it had a very TF UK feel. Both stories are set about the time the AllSpark was launched from Cybertron, with Prime's story (Senior) dealing with the launch and Megatron's (Roche) with the start of the chase. And to further muddle matters, Brawl gets called Devastator here. There looks to be a time travel element being tossed in as well, hopefully it won't end in too much of a Cosmic Reset Button (i.e. certain characters may need to lose parts of their memories to avoid conflict with the movie). There's a couple of movie-continuity Mosaics, neither of which is all that good. Provisionally recommended. $3.99
- "Is He Even Smart Enough To HAVE An Identity Crisis?" Award to Transformers Saga of the AllSpark #1
Transformers Saga of the AllSpark #2: IDW - At the end of #1, a bunch of characters got shunted across space and time, and the first two parts of "Lost in Space" are presented here. Story by Furman, with part one drawn by Wildman and part two by Figueroa, with the odd page dimensions coming from being originally a U.K. comic. There's another movie-themed Mosaic as well, and then a huge stack of house ads. The Ratchet story was a bit perfunctory, but the Devastator/Brawl one was pretty good. Recommended. $3.99
- "Introspection Just Gets In The Way" Award to Transformers: Saga of the AllSpark #2
Transformers Saga of the AllSpark #3: IDW - Heh, more Target recolor characters show up here, but in toy design rather than redone to the movie aesthetic. Hence, you can actually tell who they're supposed to be. :) Two more short pieces as everyone tries to get back together after being scattered through space in the wake of the battle of Tyger Pax. Ironhide, who looks rather gorilla-like under Guidi's pencils, leads off, splitting his story between a present-time threat and a flashback. Jazz follows suit with the same story structure, but different threats and Matere art. Generally decent, but not much to 'em. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Count The Faces" Award to Transformers Saga of the AllSpark #3
Transformers: Saga of the AllSpark #4: IDW - Finally found this in the discount bin at Hastings, a regional media chain store. And I'm glad I didn't go to any significant effort to pick this up. The two stories here are set after the main action of the movie. "Starscream's Militia" (yes, a callback to G1 episode "Starscream's Brigade") takes place right after Megatron's defeat, with Starscream using the sparks of Dispensor and other AllSpark-created life to reanimate the fallen Decepticons as "zombies" under his control, and features truly hideous art by "Boo". The story doesn't exactly make up for the art. "Scorpion Sting" wraps up the loose end of Scorponok out in the desert (and is therefore probably going to be contradicted by the next movie), okay story and art. Very mildly recommended. $3.99 (although I paid $2.00)
- "Blackout Ate My Quarter!" Award to Transformers Saga of the AllSpark #4

Transformers: the Reign of Starscream: Mowry and Ryall write, Milne draws this "official" sequel to the movie. Time will tell if it's actually official or just another Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

Transformers: the Reign of Starscream #1 (of 4, I think): IDW - It's billed as a sequel to the movie, but only a couple of pages could be counted as that. The first chunk adds some material between the lines of the official prequel comic, plus retelling other parts from Starscream's POV. Then the middle retells the movie itself from Starscream's view, leading up to a touch of retconning (or at least rearranging of scenes) to set up the actual story that will start in #2. While I applaud the effort to keep the story comprehensible to people who haven't read any of the previous movieverse comics, most of this could have been done just as well (and a lot less murkily) as a text page, leaving more of the issue for actual story. We don't really get a lot out of Starscream's point of view here that couldn't have been done in maybe 4 pages of on-screen recap. And yeah, the art by Milne suffers from movie designs and colorist murk. Very mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Don't Worry, Brawl, We'll Fix It In Post" Award to Transformers: the Reign of Starscream #1 (of 4)
Transformers: the Reign of Starscream #2 (of whatever): IDW - Loads of new characters show up, including most of the non-movie toys (Landmine is apparently a wholly human creation in this continuity) and a few non-toy characters (it looks like we've got a movie-style Cosmos with a bit part). We're definitely not in the same setting as the prequel novel, but it seems unlikely that the prequel novel will be paid any attention ever again, and rightly so. :) The colors are a bit washed out in places, but Milne's art is generally followable, and the story is definitely moving. Recommended. $3.99
- "At Least He Wasn't In The Ductwork" Award to Transformers the Reign of Starscream #2 (of whatever)
Transformers: the Reign of Starscream #3: IDW - Nope, Arcee isn't any sexier in comic form. The movie design is pretty unflattering. This issue seems to mainly be about blowing up lots of non-movie toys, including some of the Target exclusive Energon/Cybertron recolors, but Mowry makes a mistake in not clearly naming everyone in this issue...he labels for the trade (i.e. Cliffjumper is never named this issue, although he was last issue). While IDW continues to not admit anywhere on the comic to the length of its minis, this feels like a part three of six. In other words, if #4 is the conclusion, the pacing sucks. :) Milne does a decent job coming up with pre-Earth modes for a lot of characters, but the shrapnel aesthetic still works against him, and the color palette is muted enough to make identification tricky. Mildly recommended. $3.99 (I got Cover A)
- "Problem Decomposer" Award to Transformers Spotlight #17 (Hardhead)
Transformers: the Reign of Starscream #4: IDW - Got cover B. The action shifts entirely to Cybertron, as almost all of the remaining non-movie toy characters get in on the game and Starscream puts his Master Plan into effect. The art by Milne is still rather cluttered, an unavoidable problem with the movie designs, though, especially since all the Target recolor toys get redesigned with spiky movie appearances. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Cybertron Meets Innsmouth" Award to Transformers Reign Of Starscream #4
Transformers: the Reign of Starscream #5: IDW - Final issue of the miniseries. Mowry does an okay job of establishing character names, but the designs are still too hard to tell apart and the colors too low-contrast to really follow any but a few examples. So it'd kinda like watching a big MMOG battle where you have a vague idea of who's involved, but the action doesn't slow down enough to really tell who half of 'em are, even as they die. It's interesting seeing a Starscream who actually thinks he has honor, being offended by traitorous underlings, but that alone isn't really enough to carry it. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Oh No, They Killed Signal Flare! Wait, I Thought *I* Was Signal Flare?" Award to Transformers the Reign of Starscream #5

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Official Prequel: Alliance: Written by Mowry, drawn by Milne. It's the first of two prequel comics, filling in bits between the movies and shortly before.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Movie Prequel: Alliance #1 (of 4): IDW - One of two prequel minis. Both presumably four issues, but being IDW they don't say so anywhere on the comic...wait, what's this? On the inside front cover they actually say "of four," wow. Also, henceforth, "TF:RotF" will stand for everything before "Alliance" so I don't have to keep typing it. Maybe Diamond's computers simply choked on the title, explaining why they never shipped it or its companion series. Anyway, this series picks up from the end of Reign of Starscream and takes some of the threads laid down both there (the human-built Landmine et al, Starscream's faux AllSpark) and in the first movie's prequel comic (Wreckage, who got horribly jobbed, is back). Of course, to do all this, it actually starts a few months before the main action of the movie, since there's a lot of Wreckage retconning to do. And Dispensor, perhaps the most sinister of the AllSpark Babies, gets a brief appearance. :) The Dispensor scene makes it clear that the Legends of the AllSpark miniseries is not in the same continuity, since that had a different fate for Dispensor. And a lot more of this issue involves establishing how the end of the first movie wasn't necessarily what it appeared to be, thereby opening up some wiggle room for the sequel to go in slightly different directions. Mowry's writing and Milne's art are both passable, although I'm starting to think that no one can really write Ratchet without it sounding like they're trying way too hard to be funny. Mildly recommended. $3.99.
- "Brand Loyalty" Award to TF:RotF Alliance #1 (of 4)
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Alliance #2 (of 4): IDW - Wreckage is revived by an AllSpark fragment (but does not change to an Animated style design), fights Starscream just long enough to erase the last lingering inconvenient bits of plot device from Reign of Starscream, and then gets jobbed since he's not in the movie. It's not so much that things happen here as they UN-happen, erasing any bits of continuity from previous comic tie-ins that might fit poorly with Revenge of the Fallen. Neutral. $3.99
- "Not So Much A New Paint Job As Bad Lighting Effects" Award to Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Alliance #2 (of 4)
TF:RotF: Alliance #3 (of 4): IDW - Well, Wreckage got shelved again in #2, too bad. He served his purpose, however, of showing how an AllSpark fragment can Do Stuff, like in TF: Animated. Also, it gave a better reason for Sector 7 to be officially disbanded...namely, Wreckage busting loose and wreaking havoc. This issue finally catches up to the end of the first movie and the deep sixing, then moves into intermezzo territory. The coloring drifts into murk, although several scenes are at night, so it's excusable. Loads of toy-but-not-movie characters show up and start trouble, so I think it's safe to say that #4 will rack up something of a body count. Again, the writing and art are okay, and they do a decent job of stitching together the gaps. Mildly recommended. $3.99.
- "What, Exactly, Made Fracture Think That Was A Good Disguise?" Award to TF:RotF Alliance #3 (of 4)
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Alliance #4 (of 4): IDW - Well, it IS a prequel. For the most part, the story arc of this series was resolved last issue, with a short fight scene starting this issue to make sure that the non-movie characters introduced in the series don't make it TO the next movie, and then it's montage time. They establish the forces that will be available in the opening fight of the next movie and close on shots of the enemy in that fight. Competent, but doesn't really exceed expectations. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "They Need A Red Flashy Thing" Award to Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Alliance #4 (of 4)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Official Prequel: Defiance: Mowry, Khanna and Griffith work on this other prequel series, which is more about deep backstory.

TF:RotF: Defiance #1 (of 4): IDW - The other prequel series. And this is VERY prequelly, being set before the Autobot/Decepticon split, at least initially. A new threat is introduced, along with implications of a sort of proto-Decepticon culture lost in archaeological history. Mowry writes this series too, with Khanna on breakdowns and Griffith on finishes. There's definitely a different sort of Cybertron here, and it seems like the friction between Megatron and Optimus Prime would have remained merely that save for the introduction of a Plot Device. Given that this is billed as a prequel to Revenge of the Fallen, it's not too big a stretch to posit that this plot device involves the Fallen. :) The writing tends towards the expositiony in places, with characters relating to each other what they already know, and the visual blocking is more in the style of pinups than storytelling much of the time. Mildly recommended. $3.99.
- "The Shadow Over Cybertron" Award to TF:RotF Defiance #1 (of 4) (Later note: Yeah, this is the second Innsmouth reference on movieverse comics. What of it?)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Movie Prequel: Defiance #2 (of 4): IDW - We see more of what external force changed Megatron from a jerk into a tyrant, but at this point I have to wonder if there will be a Big Reveal anywhere in this series...since the full revelation may be a plot point for the movie. There's also some retconning to make Earth a little more focal to the Autobot/Decepticon conflict rather than the random battleground implied in the first movie. Mowry's writing is competent, and the art by Khanna and Griffith is pretty good, although Josh Perez's coloring is sometimes a bit overdone. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "I Blame The Goa'uld, Myself" Award to TF:RotF Defiance #2 (of 4)
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Defiance #3 (of 4): IDW - Pretty much all the "origin of the civil war" stuff is wrapped up here, with the Decepticons getting named and the schism becoming unhealable. All that's left for the final issue is to have a big fight and then drop foreshadowing for the movie. It was a decent issue, though. Recommended. $3.99
- "Come Up To The Lab, And See What'z In The Slab" Award to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Defiance #3 (of 4)
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Defiance #4 (of 4): IDW - Okay, that makes Diamond one for eight in terms of shipping the movie prequel comics to my store. They didn't ship Spotlight: Gary Stu this week, though. Anyway, like Alliance #4, the actual storytelling part ends after a few pages and we shift into summary mode, laying out the rest of the backstory for the movie. All of the "just dumb luck" stuff about the setup in the first movie is ruthlessly retconned into being For A Purpose, and the whole setting gets rather Furmanned. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "I Still Blame The Goa'uld" Award to Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Defiance #4 (of 4)

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Official Movie Adaptation: Furman "writes" and is VERY far from his best. I got the first issue and decided not to waste time or money on the other three.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Official Movie Adaptation #1 (of 4): IDW - Wow. I've seen some pretty bad compressions in adaptations, but this one barely rises to the level of Cliff's Notes. I'm not sure reading it could even constitute spoilers for the movie, I've seem more details in the TRAILERS. It's like Furman's not even trying here, just taking X panels per minute of screen action and "adapting" it as lazily as possible. Avoid. $3.99
- "Magic Nose Goblins" Award to Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Official Movie Adaptation #1 (of 4)

Transformers Tales of the Fallen: A series of done in one stories filling in some of the gaps between the Alliance prequel and the Revenge of the Fallen movie. They kinda had to wait for the final cut to be sure what elements would actually be IN the movie, you see.

Transformers Tales of the Fallen #1: IDW - I got cover A, which I think is supposed to show some (okay, a LOT of) Alfons Mucha influence. This story is set between Alliance #4's main action and the start of the movie, spackling over a few of the minor continuity issues (i.e. Bumblebee is active with the Autobots at the end of Alliance, but has been with Sam for a while at the start of the movie) and largely focusing on a rematch between Bumblebee and Barricade. The fight is a bit drawn out (and at one point one of the "POLICE" decals on Barricade is mirror-flopped, but not the other, weird), and the dialogue tends to be somewhat stilted. Still, it does a decent job of splicing Alliance onto Revenge of the Fallen, which is what it set out to do. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Think Of The Poor Kitties" Award to Transformers Tales of the Fallen #1
Transformers Tales of the Fallen #2: IDW - I liked cover A better. This one is the tale of Sideswipe's arrival on Earth, and while the characterization and development are really shallow, it's still more depth than he got in the movie. It also hints at significant character growth in between this story and the movie, since this one is really just about catching a clue-by-four to the face...internalizing the lesson has to come later. Carlos Magno's art is decent, and he lends is own spin to the movie aesthetic, a somewhat "Byrne organic tech" feel. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "He Apparently Mellowed Before The Movie, Not That Sideways Appreciates It" Award to Transformers Tales of the Fallen #2
Transformers Tales of the Fallen #3: IDW - This issue is Jetfire's backstory, which fills in a lot of gaps but also makes it harder to make sense of the overall timeline. It does at least explain how he acquired his Blackbird altmode. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Axe, Cane, Whatever" Award to Transformers Tales of the Fallen #3
Transformers Tales of the Fallen #4: IDW - This is the origin of the Fallen, as told by the Fallen...so, you know, Unreliable Narrator right there. Taken at face value, it certainly makes the AllSpark a LOT more sinister, but given everything that happens to the Fallen it's impossible to take it all at face value (GIVE ME YOUR FACE...VALUE). It's definitely a good example of how people can rewrite their own memories to cast themselves as the heroes no matter how much the rest of the world considers them to be villains, though. Recommended. $3.99
- "Just Because Your God Really Does Talk To You Doesn't Mean You're Not Crazy" Award to Transformers Tales of the Fallen #4
Transformers Tales of the Fallen #5: IDW - Ravage spotlight, yay spine-kitty! Plus an Ejector cameo, of sorts. Furman establishes a fairly animalistic personality for Ravage, definitely not the eloquent spy of G1. It also sets up a mystery, but it'd be a bit too spoilery for me to go into any detail here. I was amused by how the ending echoes Marvel G1 Transformers #20. Recommended. $3.99
- "I HAZ ALLSPARK NAO" Award to Transformers Tales of the Fallen #5
Transformers Tales of the Fallen #6: IDW - The Arcee issue, and boy does she HAVE issues. (Hasbro doesn't seem to have any clue what to do with her since the combiner mode was dropped from the movie, naming seems almost random now.) This goes with the original concept seen in the movie novelization that Arcee is one mind split among three bodies, rather than three separate robots, and I do prefer that version. It ties into Reign of Starscream, establishing how we got from the purple single-body Arcee to the new triple-body one, and also provides some background for Mudflap and Skids (who weren't in Reign, I just double-checked, but apparently they worked with Arcee some time in the past). It doesn't do much for Arcee's characterization, simply redefining her gimmick, but it changes the Twins from comic relief to somewhat tragic figures. Recommended. $3.99
- "Sorry, But It's Medical Experiments For The Lot O' You" Award to Transformers Tales of the Fallen #6

Transformers Nefarious: This series by Furman and Magno picks up from Tales of the Fallen #5 and the mystery of what revived Ravage. Tagged as an official sequel, it introduces a new faction that may or may not show up in the third movie.

Transformers Nefarious #1: IDW - Billed across the top as "The Official Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Sequel!" This picks up from Tales of the Fallen #5 and the mystery of Ravage's revival, with Soundwave doing most (but not all) of the narration. Rather chatty in narrator mode, he is. The new player in the game is partially revealed, and we get to see a bunch of non-movie characters slug it out (including Rumble as a blue rhino) and an obligatory one-shot death of a non-movie character. At least he got a few lines before being zorched. It's Furman at his most Furmanny, for both good and ill...all it needs to get the full Furman is Grimlock to show up and say "Hh." Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "What Does Frenzy Turn Into, A Weasel?" Award to Transformers Nefarious #1
Transformers Nefarious #2: IDW - Well, Dirt Boss gets some good bits, at least. The other non-movie toy characters brought in are pretty much interchangeable spear-carriers (playing up the insectile aspects by giving Reverb an extra set of arms was a nice touch, though). Much of the rest of the story is either narration about how messed up the situation is (from the POV or Prime or Soundwave) or scenes with the new Big Bad that's messing up the situation. It all feels more like we're being TOLD how dire things are and only barely SHOWN any of it. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Something Tells Me OSHA Wouldn't Approve" Award to Transformers: Nefarious #2
Transformers Nefarious #3: IDW - Heavy on action, as the prisoner transfer inevitably goes sour. For the most part, it's a rematch of the characters seen in the past two issues, but with the powerhouses off the field. The Initiative plot is mostly independent of this, although the matter of Ravage is definitively cleared up (I suspect Furman meant it to be more obvious in #1, but he DOES have a penchant for elliptical writing). Probably the highlight of the issue for me, though, is the character who shows up on the last page, and the way Furman explains his presence. Recommended. $3.99
- "I Can Haz Kitty, LOL" Award to Transformers Nefarious #3
Transformers Nefarious #4: IDW - I got cover B, with Ransack strafing the twins. Eat hot photons, ya turbo-revvin' punks! Sadly, artist Magno practically ignores the nifty Ransack toy and designs a Random Pile Of Panels robot that bears almost no resemblance to...well, anything much. Bah. On a similar note, the blocking suggests that we're supposed to recognize the character in the Last Page Reveal, but it's another Bayformery mess and rings no bells. Furman's story is decent, at least, and he manages to make the twins in-story annoying without being annoying to the reader. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "Because Silent, Mind-Controlled Characters Are SO Interesting To Read" Award to Transformers Nefarious #4
Transformers Nefarious #5: IDW - You know, Surprise Reveals work a lot better when you don't mangle the designs so far that the character being revealed is nigh-unrecognizable. I think this is the penutimate issue, although IDW's refusal to label miniseries as such and the bad pacing so far means I can't really be sure. Eh. Neutral. $3.99
- "Coffee Will Be The Death Of You Yet" Award to Transformers Nefarious #5
Transformers Nefarious #6: IDW - Um, okay? Things explode. There's a backstory dump that explains the badguy's motivations. More characters appear who are utterly unidentifyable (Blazemaster is mentioned, but I can't figure out which of the masses of metal scrap he's supposed to be). I think we're supposed to think the movieverse Fortress Maximus is involved in this somewhere, but he's another scrap mess. This series ended up accomplishing almost nothing...all that really "happened" was that Ravage came back from the dead, and that really took place in another series, it was merely explained (more or less) in this one. Bleh. $3.99
- "So...Buzzsaw Is A Helicopter Now?" Award to Transformers Nefarious #6

Dark of the Moon Rising Storm: One of two prequel miniseries for the third movie, this one is set between Nefarious and the movie.

Transformers Dark of the Moon Rising Storm #1 (I presume it's a miniseries, but they don't list the length): IDW - And now for the prequel comics! This one is written by Barber (Sector 7) with art by Magno. The Foundation comic didn't arrive at my store (and once again there was no invoice, so we can't tell if it was even supposed to be shipped). Unfortunately, it starts on a bad note by killing off two of my favorite non-movie toy characters in the obligatory "show how badass the new villains are" scene. At least Barber gave both of them a little characterization before slagging them. But it does mean he's decided that anyone not in Dark of the Moon is fair game for killing, which can lead to lazy writing. Another unfortunate point is that Magno decides to go with full detail and minimal lineweight variation on the Bayformer designs, making it hard to pick out the important details among the noise. There's some good scripting, though, and it *could* end up a good story overall, it just has some ill-omened elements. Mildly recommended. $3.99
- "What's Chinese For 'Jobbed?'" Award to Transformers Dark of the Moon Rising Storm #1 (of 4)
Transformers Dark of the Moon Rising Storm #2: IDW - A muddled mess of flashbacks, Knowing Narration and foreshadowing for the movie, into the middle of which Barber tries to fit something resembling a story about foiling Starscream's latest doomed-to-fail plot. The ways it ties into other prequel/sequel comics only manage to make things more confusing, not less. The sad part is, this is hardly the worst IDW movie-verse comic in that regard. Neutral. $3.99
- "Yeah, Not Getting That Security Deposit Back Either" Award to Transformers Dark of the Moon Rising Storm #2
Dark of the Moon Foundation: The other miniseries prequel for Dark of the Moon, by writer Barber and artist Griffith. Due to shipping issues (i.e. not shipping to anywhere in my area) I got the first two issues late from a friend in another state, so I just reviewed them as one thing.
- Transformers Dark of the Moon Foundation #1 amd #2: IDW - Just like for Revenge of the Fallen, we're getting two prequel miniseries. Rising Storm is like Alliance in that it covers the period between movies. Foundation is like Defiance, filling in the deep history of the movie Transformers. The main action appears to be some time between the end of the main action of Defiance and the loss of the AllSpark at Tyger Pax. Megatron has engineered a "final confrontation" with Optimus, and the narration shifts between the two leaders as it's established that ideologically Megatron is winning the war. Prime has had to sacrifice his principles, the core of who he is, in order to survive, and Megatron is in full gloat mode. Most of the story, however, is flashbacks to the short-lived age of prosperity after new implant Sentinel Prime helped save Cybertron but before the schism outlined in Defiance. There's certainly echoes of the War for Cybertron timeline here, but Barber does a good job of fleshing out the mythology of the movieverse in these opening issues. Depending on how closely continuity meshes with other comics (always an iffy proposition when working with walk-on characters from the movies), it may also lend a LOT more pathos to Tales of the Fallen #6. Griffith does what he can with the bayformer style, and generally keeps characters recognizable. Recommended. $3.99 each
  - "So, Were Those New Bodies, Or Her Sisters' Empty Shells?" Award to Transformers Dark of the Moon Foundation #1 and #2
- #3 still missing. Given #4 below, I'm not looking too hard for it.
- Transformers Dark of the Moon Foundation #4 (of 4): IDW - On the one hand, missing #3 means I could very well have missed some critical piece of the plot. On the other, I get the feeling that there's not much "there" there. #1-2's flashbacks set up how things weren't like as described in the previous prequel comics and in-movie flashbacks, and now this issue is about breaking all of those toys, killing off or removing all the characters we hadn't seen before, etc. Barber's writing and Griffith's art are both serviceable, but not otherwise very good. Very mildly recommended. $3.99
  - "And That's Why We Can't Have Nice Things" Award to Transformers Dark of the Moon Foundation #4 (of 4)

Transformers Comics

Reviews of comics adapting or related to TF movies